Shall Never Surrender
by And The Adversary Succeeds
Summary: AU: For three hundred years war has ravaged Spira. The mysterious Fulcrum has fought to keep the neutral states safe, and the Praetorian Regime down. And finally, the war seems to be coming to a close. But for which side? - Ch. 1 posted -


1: WAR

"-_Crusader militia has overthrown the Church. In a single night the holy arm of Bevelle turned on the Maesters, in_-"

"-_have been arrested. We presume that the former leaders of the Church will be tried for their tyranny. The hope is that the Regime will try and right the wrongs of the corrupt Church._"

"-_shocked the world with the brutal executions of the Maesters only days after the insurrection. The new leader of Bevelle, the Praetor, has stated that the Crusaders will no longer stand idly by while others step on their names. And they have sworn to exact_-"

"-_massive military build-up. This is activity no one had anticipated._"

"_The possibility of war has become an all-too-real threat. The Praetor_-"

"All we have hoped for is lost. We will not allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by this rising tide. We will stand strong, and face this threat openly with extreme prejudice, if necessary. We will not submit to _another_ tyranny. We can only pray that we will have the strength to do what we must to survive."

The words of Tal Yevon, the leader of the Yevon Dynasty during the start of the War, were never forgotten. He was perhaps the only man with enough bravery to openly defy what the Crusaders were sure to start. The hopes that the Praetorian Regime would create peace were dashed to pieces when the ex-Maesters were savagely killed atop the palace of St. Bevelle. As the reporters informed an increasingly worried public, Bevelle started to build up its new legions.

The current Praetor turned the Crusaders into a war machine. Yevon tried to dissuade the military leader from the course of action the whole world knew he would take. But he was no fool. At the same time he orchestrated his own military build-up. The world watched on as the two most powerful nations in Spira prepared for war. One wanting conquest, the other wanting to defend its people.

But there were those who knew that the war would not stay limited to the two states.

The Al Bhed Foundation, at the time in it's one-thousandth sixteenth year of power, was one. The Foundation was a neutral state – along with Guadosalam, Besaid, and Luca – and had numerous protectorates. Mostly the islands near Bikanel. Their largest protectorate was a massive city: Baaj. When the war finally broke out between Bevelle and Zanarkand with the Battle of the Remiem Sea, the Foundation knew that the age-old bad blood between Bevelle and the Al Bhed would bring them into the war sooner or later.

Sooner, as it turned out.

A number of Al Bhed generals urged the current leader to take action in order to defend it's people and its protectorates. But they were too late. A Bevelle seafleet attacked and destroyed Baaj. The Foundation immediately sent ships to remove the survivors and those dead that could be found. Baaj was abandoned.

The Foundation then officially entered the war, stating that Bevelle's attack had been a violation of the thousand-year-old Neutrality Act that had been put in place when the Foundation was first formed. The Act stated that the attacking of a neutral state would be considered a war crime. If the state that violated that act lost the war, the punishment that would be dealt to the leaders of said state would be extremely severe.

Those generals that had tried to persuade the leader to act blamed him for the destruction of Baaj, along with many Al Bhed. Those that did, a somewhat small portion of the Al Bhed population, left the Foundation. After sailing for some time, they secretly landed at the ruins of Baaj. They then began a restoration process of the destroyed city. They left the outside untouched as a way of keeping their location a secret. They constructed both above and below water structures for their city.

Afterward, they began building their own army slowly. Almost one-hundred years into the war – which consisted so far of minor skirmishes at sea and a few in the air – a new Al Bhed government made its appearance. They called themselves the Fulcrum, though they really called themselves the Baaj Al Bhed as a way of keeping the memory of the tragedy that started their government alive. The Fulcrum was a military government that believed in preemptive defensive-offense. And every member of their society was trained to be a soldier from the start, though many of them developed other skills as well.

They established more outposts across Spira, most of them hidden, and waited for the right moment to join in the war by attacking and decimating a Bevelle seafleet, simultaneously destroying the Regime's current capital ship. But the fighting continued, the battles becoming larger and more violent as the war progressed.

The Fulcrum acted as a raiding army in the beginning. They would attack randomly and suddenly in fleets of fast, powerful stealth warships. They would then vanish, leaving the enemy fleet severely damaged or destroyed.

But even with the Fulcrum in the fray, the war showed no signs of ending. Instead, it only got worse.

Much worse.


End file.
